Ogoni Cleaning: HYPREP council to run for 4 years

11 August 2015, Abuja – Details of the arrangements put in place by the Federal Government to clean up the oil spill in Ogoniland, Rivers State emerged, yesterday, last night with indication that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, HYPREP, Governing Board will run for four years in the first instance.

A strategic document on the project, which was obtained exclusively by Vanguard, indicates that the HYPREP Governing Council will have one representative each from the ministries of Petroleum Resources and Environment, states classified as “Impacted” by the degradation, specifically Rivers and United Nations Systems.

Ogoniland will nominate two representatives while oil companies prospecting in the affected communities and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC will nominate four members into the committee.

Following a meeting held on the directive of President Buhari, it was also agreed that a contribution deposit of N2.1billion ($10million) will be made by stakeholders within 30 days of the appointment of members of the Board of Trustees for the Trust Fund who will be responsible for collecting and managing funds from contributors and donors.

As a prelude to the take off of the operations, the Federal Government is expected to amend the Official Gazette establishing the HYPREP to reflect a new governance framework comprising a governing council, a board of trustees and project management.

A breakdown of the composition of the council is as follows: Ministry of Petroleum Resources (one representative), Federal Ministry of Environment (one representative), Impacted States (Rivers) (one representative), Oil Companies and NNPC (four Representative), Ogoniland (two representatives), United Nations (one representative) while the secretariat would be headed by a project manager.

Similarly, the composition of a Board of Trustees for the HYPREP Trust Fund also involves the Federal Government, NNPC, one representative; International Oil Companies, one representative, Ogoniland, one representative and the United Nations with one representative.